Fact vs. Fiction: 10 Questions to Test Your Space IQ

Science speeds along so fast that it can be hard sometimes to know exactly
what's known. So now and then its helpful to pause and ponder the state of things.

The following 10 statements straddle the line between fact and fiction in space
science. If you haven't been paying very close attention, the truthfulness of
some might be hard to gauge.

Jot down which side of the fact-fiction line you think each falls, then see
the answers below. The challenge, of course, is to score
a perfect 10.

1. We have strong evidence that our solar system is
not the only one; we know there are many other Suns with planets orbiting them.

2. Some organisms can survive in space for years --
without any kind of protective enclosure.

3. Organisms have been found thriving in scalding water
with temperatures as high as 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

4. We now have evidence that some form of life exists
beyond Earth, at least in primitive form.

5. We currently have the technology necessary to send
astronauts to another star system within a reasonable time span. The only problem
is that such a mission would be overwhelmingly expensive.

6. All of the gas giant planets in our solar system
(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have rings.

7. In the "Star Wars" films, the Imperial TIE Fighters
are propelled by ion engines (TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine). While these spacecraft
are fictional, real ion engines power some of today's spacecraft.

8. There is no gravity in deep space.

9. The basic premise of teleportation -- made famous
in TV's "Star Trek" -- is theoretically sound. In fact, scientists have already
"teleported" the quantum state of individual atoms from one location to another.

10. Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in the
"Star Wars" films, has two Suns -- what astronomers would call a binary star
system. Scientists have discovered recently that planets really can form within
such systems.

Answers

1.We have strong evidence that our
solar system is not the only one; we know there are many other Suns with planets
orbiting them.

SCIENCE FACT

Improved telescopes and detectors have led to the
detection of dozens of new planetary systems within the past decade, including
several systems containing multiple planets. So far, the limits of technology
favor the discovery of large planets, and many are more massive than Jupiter
and, surprisingly, hug their stars in scorchingly
close orbits that last days instead of
years. But some other systems look
a lot like our own.

2.Some organisms can survive in space for years
-- without any kind of protective enclosure.

SCIENCE FACT

A small colony of the common bacteria Streptococcus
mitis stowed away for nearly three years aboard NASA's Surveyor 3, an unmanned
spacecraft that landed on the moon in 1967. The crew of Apollo 12 recovered
the organisms and brought them back to Earth under sterile conditions. This
unplanned experiment proved that certain microorganisms can survive years of
radiation exposure, the vacuum of space and deep-freeze, without any nutrient,
water or energy source. Some researchers say life
could have traveled from Mars to Earth
inside a space rock.

3.Organisms have been found thriving in scalding
water with temperatures as high as 235 degrees Fahrenheit.

FACT

More than 50 heat-loving microorganisms, or hyperthermophiles,
have been found thriving at very high temperatures in such locations as hot
springs in Wyoming's Yellowstone National Park and on the walls of deep-sea
hydrothermal vents. Some of these species multiply best at 221 degrees Fahrenheit,
and can reproduce at up to 235 degrees. Bacteria have also been found thriving
under
ice near the poles, in a highly
alkaline lake, and deep
underground, feeding off rock.

4. We now have evidence that some form of life exists
beyond Earth, at least in primitive form.

FICTION

While many scientists speculate that extraterrestrial life exists, so far there
is no conclusive evidence to prove it. Future missions to Mars, the Jovian moon
Europa and future space telescopes will search for definitive answers to this
ageless question.

5.We currently have the technology necessary to
send astronauts to another star system within a reasonable time span. The only
problem is that such a mission would be overwhelmingly expensive.

FICTION

Even the unmanned Voyager spacecraft, which left
our solar system years ago at a breathtaking 37,000 miles per hour, would take
76,000 years to reach the nearest
star. Because the distances involved are
so vast, interstellar travel to another star within a practical time scale would
require, among other things, the ability the move a vehicle at or near the speed
of light. This is beyond the reach of today's spacecraft -- regardless of funding,
according to. Even so, the space agency is looking
into the possibilities.

6. All of the gas giant planets in our solar system
(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) have rings.

FACT

Saturn's rings are the most pronounced and visible,
but they aren't the only ones. Check out the rings (and clouds) of Uranus
and Neptune.

7.In the "Star Wars" films, the Imperial TIE Fighters
are propelled by ion engines (TIE stands for Twin Ion Engine). While these spacecraft
are fictional, real ion engines power some of today's spacecraft.

FACT

Ion propulsion has long been a staple of science
fiction novels, but in recent years it has been successfully tested on a number
of unmanned spacecraft, notably NASA's Deep Space 1. Launched in 1998, Deep
Space 1 rendezvoused with a distant asteroid and then with a
comet, proving that ion propulsion could
be used for interplanetary travel. And the European Space Agency just put an
ion-powered
probe into orbit around the Moon.

8.There is no gravity in deep space.

FICTION

If this were true, the moon would float away from
the Earth, and our entire solar system would drift apart. While it's true that
gravity gets weaker with distance, it can never be escaped completely, no matter
how far you travel in space. Astronauts appear to experience "zero-gravity"
because they are in continuous free-fall around the Earth. An interesting twist
(or rather, nontwist) to this concept is that the gravity of a black hole works
the same way. So, while anything too close to a black hole (including light)
will be sucked in and hidden from view, objects at a distance from a black hole
feel no greater pull than if the black hole were a star of equal mass. Go
figure.

9.The basic premise of teleportation -- made famous in TV's "Star
Trek" -- is theoretically sound. In fact, scientists have already "teleported"
the quantum state of individual atoms from one location to another.

FACT

As early as the late 1990s, scientists proved they could teleport data using photons, but the photons were absorbed by whatever surface they struck. More recently, physicists at the University of Innsbruck in Austria and at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, for the first time teleported information between atoms using the principle of quantum entanglement.

Experts say this technology eventually could enable the invention of superfast
"quantum computers." But the bad news, at least for sci-fi fans, is that experts
don't foresee being able to teleport people in this manner.

10.Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in the
"Star Wars" films, has two Suns -- what astronomers would call a binary star
system. Scientists have discovered recently that planets really can form within
such systems.

FACT

Double stars, or binary systems, are common in our
Milky Way galaxy. Even three-star systems exist in gravitational
harmony. Among the more than 100 new planets
discovered in recent years, some have been found in binary systems, including
16
Cygni B and 55
Cancri A. So far, alas, no one has found
a habitable planet like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine.